Hate to say it but at this time many Countries were doing it ..... Germans did loads of awful things in this period, all in the name of medical research. It will come out that we have probably. Think of thalidomide and the effects that still has today.

It was 60 years ago - it is not something that would happen today. So while it was reprehensible, you can't blame the US people because they a. didn't know about it at the time (possibly even the president of the time didn't know about it) and b. the people in charge are probably dead by now.

Retrospective hand-wringing is a waste of time. There are plenty of human rights abuses going on right now to worry/do something about.

I think it's important to remind ourselves of what some humans are capable of. Yes, it was 60 years ago, but I don't think there is any evidence that we have changed. Why would we be different from all other humans since the beginning of time?

Most of us aren't like this, though. It's up to us to make sure that bad people don't get the power to do things like this.

What I think is disgusting is that we have all been taught how evil it was that the Nazis were doing this sort of thing in their concentration camps and that this was one of the reasons they had to be defeated, with not a word about the fact that the Americans were doing the same thing. Not comparing the Americans to the Nazis in any other way, but it was evil and needs to be known.

The thalidomide disaster is totally different: that was a bona fide mistake.

Cory, I think something happens to people when they get hold of power over other people. I think they start believing that they can see the whole picture and that it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice individuals or groups in order to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people ...

People who commit atrocities like this justify it to themselves. They probably don't see themselves as evil - might even feel like heroes. Maybe they are insane - but then how do they get other people to join in?